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Live from Onboard

All the Way to the Top!

Sunday 10 July, Jan Mayenrugged island

It was a slow start on Sunday - the trip over and the anchor watches took it out of us a bit!
After a nice bacon and egg fry up by Boogie, a radio check in with the climbing party (at mid camp and going for the summit today!) and some boat cleaning (gotta love George II, our faithfull wet/dry hoover), it was time to go and say hello to the locals. We had a standing invitation from the Station Commander to come over any time and Luke dropped Boogie and myself off at the black lavasand beach in the bay, no need for immersion suits this time!

The beach was beautiful in an almost unnatural way - a lovely rounded bay, with a group of rocks at the water edge, splitting the beach in two...only the sand was a deep dark grey, almost black and littered with bleached driftwood...if only the sun would have been out (and I'd brought the Nikon),
there were some great shots to be had!

Just above the beach were the first buildings and an open boat on a very hefty trailer, fitted with snow/sand tires and chains. Two roads led in the direction of the base, but not having a street plan, we decided to take the one with the streetlights.
A good 5 minutes walk, saw us to the base: a few outbuildings left and right of the road, a big square, complete with flag pole and two (later to be found out: Dutch 17th century) canons, and a large building, built in a U-form around the square.
A big blue sign next to the door welcomed us the Jan Mayen base, so we knocked and waited.
And knocked again. And again...no sign of life...a bit apprehensive we tried the door - we didn't just want to barge in either - and stuck our head around it, calling out. Still nothing.
Clearly this was were it was all happening though, as we could see plants, comfy chairs and a pool table...we walked back across the square and decided to try our luck around the outside of the buildings...nothing...
There were supposed to be 30 - 35 people around! Surely we should see one of them moving around somewhere...unless...
Unless some alien force had come in the night and spirited them all away...or some deadly virus had crept in and we were the only survivors and now had to save the planet!
You might be laughing, but the atmosphere of this empty, seemingly desolate and deserted place, just made us imagine the most unlikely scenarios, even though we were chuckling as we did so.
In the end, we called in and suddenly when we knocked again, we were warmly welcomed. Literally and figuratively - the building was a lovely warm temperature and within minutes we got invited to dinner and to relax here and wait for the Commander, who should be back in 45 minutes or so.
A cup of hot chocolate and an entertaining host, made it seem a lot shorter.
We got a look at the little museum they have here, and Boogs and were happy to find some Dutch photos and papers! The island was after all named after a Dutch whaler: Jan Jacobsen May, and so is the volcano and higest top on the island: Beerenberg. They still have a lot of Dutch artefacts, even though the Norwegians at some point ousted us out and took over the island.
An impressive exhibition about the flore and fauna on the island included a Polar Bear head on the wall! These days, the ice doesn't reach this far any more and you can go and have a walk without having to bring a gun. Lucky for our mountain team!
The Commander turned out to be a very welcoming and helpful man and was generous enough to offer transport from the Old Met Station back to base for the bags of our climbing team once they came back down tomorrow, saving us a hazardous pick up on the North side and a long trip back by boat.
Not unwelcome either was the invitation for all of us to come over and use their hot showers and the hot pool!
A nice message for our summit team on the evening check in!

Another easy beach trip saw us back on the boat for a quiet evening in, waiting to hear news from the summit...they made it! All five of them who went up the mountain had summited, despite the weather being far from great. Congratulations, you made it all the way to the top!
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Phone: +44 7795 566 277
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